In
a move set to vindicate Iraqis in their suspicions of rigged
elections in January, Washington officials are looking
to add Sunnis to the 275-member national assembly,
even if they lose to non-Sunni candidates. Although the
US continues to state their aim is to allow a true democracy
to flourish in Iraq, such a promise is looking bleaker as
elections draw closer. Maneuvers of this type only serve
to confirm to Iraqis that US intentions are disingenuous
and all talk of Iraq becoming a beacon of democracy and
liberty in the Middle East is in fact insincere and mere
rhetoric.

If
such a maneuver stems from fear of illegitimate elections,
as some
parties continue to threaten an alleged boycott,
then implementing such a quota above and beyond free
and fair democratic results will in itself lead
to illegitimate elections. Furthermore, if
the Iraqi Islamic Party is to be taken as an example
of alleged Sunni boycotting, then one only needs to
look at the pattern of their threats: they first threatened
not to register their party to run for elections, and
continued to threaten, but when no one paid them much
attention and it came down to the deadline, they registered
their party. Then, prior to the deadline of submitting
candidate names, they again threatened to boycott, but
when once again no one paid attention to them, they
eventually submitted one of the largest candidate lists
with 275 names. And now, they have chosen the perfect
timing to claim to boycott elections as the ballots
have already gone to print and their list is included
on the ballots. So, unless their claims are taken seriously
(by enforced quota talks, etc) this time round, their
threats of boycott will once again be mere intimidation.
These intimidation tactics are born from the party's
concern over their lack of actual consituency amongst
the Iraqi population.

As
election turnout is expected to be as
high as 84%, implementing Sunni quotas will
only serve to diminish Sunni participation as they will
believe that there is no need for their vote when their
share in parliament is guaranteed.

Such
an artificial quota will not satisfy Sunnis as:

They
claim
to represent at least 53% of Iraq and so
anything less than a majority in parliament will still
be regarded as under-representation.

The
ordinary Sunni population will not feel any loyalty
towards their 'representatives' as they will not have
voted them in- the very same cloud that hangs over the
current interim government.

Those
who will be appointed under an enforced percentage will
continue to be considered traitors and collaborators
by the Arabic media, the Baath Party, and the Salafis
- the three pillars constituting the insurgency.

Making
up 65% of the population, Shias feel they were given the
short end of the stick in the Governing Council and current
government percentages, but despite this, they have been
patient in awaiting the elections and allowing democracy
to dictate Iraq's future. If candidate lists which do
not attain 0.36% of the national vote (the minimum threshold
required for a list to win a seat) are allowed free passes
to the national assembly, Shia patience will run out as
they will not tolerate a repetition of history and their
continued marginalization and unfair representation. A
list not representative enough to attain 0.36% of the
national vote is clearly not representative of the population
and has no legitimate place in parliament.

Secretary
Powell, not best known for his enthusiasm for
genuine democracy in Iraq, expressed the possibility of
representation issues being dealt with once the national
assembly is elected. As no elected national assembly will
ever vote to undo the election results which put it into
power in the first place, Powell is clearly putting a
post-election rigging out in the open so that it may slowly
gain acceptance.

If Iraq
is allowed to be a genuine democracy, it will, as all true
democratic countries do, have constitutional provisions
for all its ethnic and religious groups, not least for minorities.
The need for pre- , intra- or post-election rigging of the
national assembly is therefore unnecessary.